Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says ‘call me a radical,’ a loaded word with a long history

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was sworn into the House of Representatives last week as the youngest congresswoman in history, which is one way of looking at her extraordinary rise.

Another is this: In a recent “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper, the freshman lawmaker unabashedly embraced the label “radical” — a move that political experts say is uncharacteristically palatable in today’s mainstream because of a mounting dissatisfaction with the political establishment.

During the segment, Cooper spoke of Ocasio-Cortez’s plans for a Green New Deal, and the tax increases on high earners to fund it, as a “radical agenda compared to the way politics is done right now.”

“Well, I think it only has been radicals who have changed this country,” she said. “Abraham Lincoln made the radical decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like Social Security.”

To that, Cooper asked: “Do you call yourself a radical?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “If that’s what radical means, call me a radical.”